Published byStanford Medicine

Midway through my first 200 hours of yoga teacher training, I can’t stop thinking or talking about the benefits of practice. Of particular interest to me is how yoga can adapt to the various needs of our different bodies. A scientific study offers a different kind of proof than an enthusiastic yogini’s testimonial, though, and more footnotes than B.K.S. Iyengar’s Light on Yoga. So I was excited to see a release for a study showing that adapted yoga for stroke rehabilitation may improve patient recovery from common physical impairments.

The study, involving researchers from the Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center in Indianapolis, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and IU Bloomington, exposed older veterans recovering from stroke to yoga. The men and women had completed their post-stroke occupational and physical therapy before the study but continued to have impairments.